Inside the Phillies with MLB.com beat writer Todd Zolecki

The Phillies’ Wednesday Lineup vs. Florida State

The Phillies play an exhibition tomorrow afternoon against Florida State at Bright House Field, and Charlie Manuel ran through his lineup card following today’s workout at Carpenter Complex:

Jimmy Rollins, SS.

Juan Pierre, DH.

Shane Victorino, CF.

Hunter Pence, RF.

Ty Wigginton, 3B.

Domonic Brown, LF.

John Mayberry Jr., 1B.

Michael Martinez, 2B.

Tuffy Gosewisch, C.

Manuel said Chase Utley and Placido Polanco will not play, which is part of the Phillies’ plan to lighten their workload during Spring Training. Catchers Carlos Ruiz and Brian Schneider also are not expected to play. Manuel said Jim Thome is expected to get at least one at-bat, but he will not play in the field.

Otherwise, Manuel said he will try to get every other position player in the game.

Right-hander Austin Hyatt will start for the Phillies.

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14 Comments

Two things:
1. Juan Pierre can walk if he is not on the 40 man roster by March 31. No surprise that he is in the starting line up.
2. Under the new CBA, a team receiving a player in a mid-season trade is not entitled to compensatory draft picks should the player walk at the end of the year. It is not difficult to conclude that the value of such players has been greatly diminished. Of course we will have to wait to see how this plays out. But my gut feeling is that the clock is ticking from the get-go and at a faster pace for decisions about players who can be free agents at the end of this season. In the Phillies case this would be Hamels and Victorino.

If Pierre isn’t on the 40-man by March 31, there’s a good enough reason to not care that he walks. I think the job is his to lose. I’m more concerned with his propensity to be caught stealing than anything else.
My preference would be for one of the youngsters to play well enough in the minors that they could afford to let Victorino go and use the money to keep Hamels. They are piling up the big salaries to the point that it’s getting too much to bear. At some point, they need to start producing Major Leaguers from their system again.

One alternative you seem not to consider is making savvy trades where the Phillies dump those who are ready to hit free agency for other teams major league ready prospects. Werth is the poster child for what not to do. On average one would expect each MLB club to have at least 3 prospects on everyone’s “Top 100 Prospects List”. Most, if not all, recent lists show the Phillies having one in most cases and two every now and again. Every list includes 5 or 6 prospects the Phillies traded away for the current “Gang Which Can’t Shoot Straight”. Wasn’t the farm system the forte of the guy the Phillies didn’t hire as GM when they did hire Junior?

If you pay attention to there A-teams (mainly LV) you would see that they have alot of guys that could make it in the pro’s. The problem is they make more money and better moves by getting rid of them while they are still AAA players. Last year they had more pitchers leave LV and all would have made AAA all-star game. The yankees took 2 and used them for a total of 3 games before either trading them away or sending them to japan! But thats how the Phils payed for there massive pitching rotation. On another note Rhodes and Mayberry will never be more then avarage in the pro’s there heads are to big and they refuse to learn the basics. They have looked the same on Defence for years. If they could learn to just change a few things they might look not look like there lost on the field. I do admit they can hit!

sorry i ment Brown not rhodes, my mind went football for a second. Mayberry is a good player don’t get me wrong. But fielding is his downfall. He has his moments where he just looks lost. I will admit he can play pro. That was my point of the first comment. He just isn’t the next great player!!!

Am I the only one who is nervous about how the Domonic Brown situation could play out? The Phils seem adamant that they will send him down to LV for the beginning of the year REGARDLESS of how well he does in the Grapefruit League. Domonic was told before that but his response seemed to make me think that he still thought that he could make the openingday roster. I am paranoid enough to think that this could get ugly with our top player in the Pharm if he isn’t allowed to join the team up north. Is there any chance that either the organization puts him on the roster or that Brown accepts the assignment to LV and plays great (and develops into a midseason call-up and ROtY candidate)? Becasue I am negadelphian enough to think that he will fall apart in LV AGAIN, because of the disappointment and seek a trade or play poorly into getting traded. Of course this is based on Domonic’s being a Grapefruit League star. So I’m rooting for him to be OK…

These roster issues have a way of working themselves out. Ruben has said that he wants Brown to spend more time in AAA. And, they aren’t as concerned about his hitting as they are his defense, and that’s troubling.
If he plays poorly, how do you expect a team to want him in a trade? Brown isn’t in a position to “seek” anything.

muleman, Why was Domonic the #6 top prospect in all of the minor leagues at one time? What happened to him? The Phils have admitted screwing up his development. LaMar got canned. Domonic degressed. He needs work in the outfield, true. But if I were a GM, I’d look at him as a classic case of a guy who needs achange of scenery and some support to become the star that he was predicted to be a year ago.

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